Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi or
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi (also known as Mevlana, meaning our guide, or Mowlavi, meaning my guide) (1207 - December 17, 1273 CE) was a Persian poet and Sufi mystic, who was born in Balkh (then a city of the greater Khorasan province, present Afghanistan) and died in Konya (present Turkey, then within Seljuk Empire's territory). The doctrines of Sufism are expressed in his symbolic works, as well as those of Hafiz. Rumi's major work is "Masnavi-ye Manavi" (Spiritual Couplets), a six-volume poem regarded by many Sufis as second in importance only to the Koran. Rumi's other major work is the "Diwan-i Shams-i Tabriz-i" (The Works of Shams of Tabriz - named in honor of Rumi's great friend and inspiration, the dervish Shams), comprising some 40,000 verses. Both works are among the most significant in all of Persian literature.
Mevlana who is also known as Rumi, was a philosopher and mystic of Islam. His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. To him and his disciples, all religions are more or less true. Looking with the same eye on Muslim, Jew, Buddhist and Christian alike, his peaceful and tolerant teaching has appealed to men and women of all sects and creeds.
Mevlana was born on September 30, 1207 in Balkh. In the advent of Mongol invasion of Central Asia, his father (Baha'al din Veled) set out to Konya, Anatolia within the westernmost territories of Seljuk Empire. It was here where Rumi spent the last forty-some years of his life and wrote his poems. He died on December 17, 1273 in Konya in present day Turkey; it is stated that he was murdered by disciples who were jealous of his relationship with Shams (also spelt Shems). He was laid to rest beside his father, and over his remains a splendid shrine was erected. The 13th centuryMevlanaMausoleum with its mosque, dance hall, dervish living quarters, school and tombs of some leaders of the Mevlevi Order continues to this day to draw pilgrims from all parts of the Muslem and non-Muslem world.
The Mevlevi, or Mevleviye, one of the most well-known of the Sufi orders, was founded in 1273 by Rumi's followers after his death, particularly his son, Sultan Veled Celebi. The Mevlevi, or "The Whirling Dervishes", believe that union with God can be attained in a dance and music ceremony called sema. Sema represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to "Perfect." Turning towards the truth, the follower grows through love, deserts his ego, finds the truth and arrives to the "Perfect." He then returns from this spiritual journey as a man who has reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation, to all creatures without discrimination as to belief, race, class or national origin.
The Mevlevi were a well established Sufi Order in the Ottoman Empire, and many of the members of the Order served in various official positions of the Caliphate. The centre for the Mevlevi order is in Konya, in Turkey, where Rumi is buried. There is also a Mevlevi monastery or durgah in Istanbul, near the Galata Tower, where the sema ceremony is performed and accessible to the public. The Mevlevi Order is also linked to other Dervish orders such as the Kadiris (founded in 1165), the Rifais (founded in 1182) and the Kalenderis.
The Mevlevi Order was outlawed in Turkey at the dawn of the secular revolution by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. In the 1950s, the Turkish government, realizing that The Whirling Dervishes had value as a tourist attraction, began allowing the Whirling Dervishes to perform annuallly in Konya on the Urs of Mevlana, December 17, the anniversary of Rumi's death. In 1974, they were allowed to come to the West. They performed in France, for the Pope, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and other venues in the US and Canada under the direction of the late Mevlevi Shaikh Suleyman Hayati Dede.
